African Swine Fever Outbreaks in Hong Kong Could Increase Need for Pork Imports
A persistent series of African swine fever (ASF) outbreaks in Hong Kong could heighten the need for imported pork, says U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) president and CEO Dan Halstrom. He just returned from a market visit to Hong Kong for the first time since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
"Hong Kong is a relatively big market for pork," he says. "They've been really struggling with African swine fever. So it's a situation where within the last two months we've seen significant culling in a relatively small herd in Hong Kong. This definitely could provide some short-term opportunity for U.S. exporters on the pork side as well."
Hong Kong’s foodservice sector, which was decimated by limitations on restaurant hours and traffic, as well as travel and tourism restrictions, is achieving a gradual recovery but still has much room for further improvement, Halstrom explains.
"It was encouraging to see a rebound. It's definitely started," he says. "A lot of people think Hong Kong and China are the same. They're two different markets and Hong Kong is a legitimate market in and of itself."
Although the December data won't be available for a few more weeks, he believes it will show over $400 million in U.S. beef exported to Hong Kong.
"Keep in mind that the emergency declaration on COVID was only lifted a little over a year ago in Hong Kong. So they're not three years removed, or two and a half years removed like we are in the U.S. So while it's still a very muted consumer in terms of confidence, the staff on the ground there, they're definitely optimistic. We do think that there's some tailwinds coming on increased food service
demand, hopefully later this year," Halstrom says.
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